Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 9, 2017 (The Sun) Nick Mead,
55, discovered the five gold bars in the Russian T54/69 while restoring it to
add to his collection of 150 military vehicles. He and mechanic Todd
Chamberlain were filming themselves prising open the diesel tank in case they
found munitions and needed to show it to bomb disposal crews. Instead, they
pulled out the bars, weighing up to 12lb - 5kg - apiece. Todd, 50, said a quick
calculation suggested they were worth in excess of £2million. He added: “We
didn’t know what to do. You can’t exactly take five gold bullion bars down to
Cash Converters without questions being asked, so we called the police.” Nick
runs Tanks-a-Lot, giving petrolheads the chance to drive any of his tanks on
his farm in Helmdon, Northants. He traded in an Army lorry and an Abbot
self-propelled gun for the T54/69 in a deal worth about £30,000 after seeing it
advertised on eBay. Todd and Nick had already found machine gun ammunition
while stripping down the tank and were worried they would find guns. The tank
restorers believe the gold was looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during
the Gulf War.

Nick Mead, left was shocked to discover a gold bullion worth £2million in the fuel tank of a tank he was restoring